Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition Reviews

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition is ranked in the 9th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
76 / 100
Nov 13, 2021

‎GTA Trilogy on Nintendo Switch has problems like the rest of the versions, from an unstable frame rate to a noticeable popping or blurrier graphics playing in the dock, but they are still three great adventures like the cup of a pine, with slight improvements, which are highly enjoyable in portable mode.‎

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4 / 5.0
Nov 14, 2021

There’s some legitimacy to all of the gripes, and that’s why I can’t give The Trilogy the perfect score that these titles would have merited individually when they were first released. Though the teenager in me might balk at giving any of these games less than 5/5, the 35-year-old me can’t deny that they are a bit janky and dated in parts, and much of the work done to update the gameplay has been insufficient or uneven. It definitely seems a big ask to expect folks to pay £55/$60 USD for these more minimal remasters when the Mafia trilogy, for example, was recently given a much more thorough root-and-branch remake of the first game along with the remastering of the other two titles. Still, even though a new coat of paint can’t cover every imperfection (and creates a couple new ugly streaks in the process), Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy is still a serviceable update for three absolute classics. With the quality of life improvements and visual upgrades, it’s still a fine way to enjoy three amazing games beloved by so many.

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80 / 100
Nov 16, 2021

Despite the complaints and all, the reality is that Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition is a pretty good remastered of three great PS2 classics. Something important to understand is that this are just remastered with few changes, not remakes.

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80 / 100
Nov 12, 2021

‎The nostalgic value of this collection is beyond doubt, they are three masterpieces that today are still very funny (and with a sensational script), but this remastering has fallen short in many aspects, and has technical flaws.‎

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PC Gamer
Top Critic
93 / 100
May 13, 2023

Near-perfect at everything it does, but wisely limits its remit. A great conversion.

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gameranx
gameranx
Top Critic
Unscored
Nov 11, 2021
GTA Trilogy: Definitive Edition - Before You Buy [4K] - YouTube video thumbnail
Unscored
Nov 22, 2021

More than anything else, playing this trilogy in 2021 forced me to consider what a "remaster" is on a fundamental level. Is is just juicing up the graphics and making the main characters a little more detailed? Or could there be something more to it? I've been living with these games since they were first released. They each fueled moral panics in their own way. GTA 3 and Vice City were at the center of a resurrected set of arguments about video game violence, and how it would turn kids into mass killers. The spectacular nature of these claims propelled lawyer Jack Thompson into the limelight, and turned him into a special kind of video game culture villain, the bogeyman who still gets invoked when people are afraid anyone is going to touch their video games. San Andreas' Hot Coffee fiasco, produced when developers accidentally left the scripts for a sex minigame in the game files on release, ended with a class-action lawsuit settlement that allowed offended players to collect $35.

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Avoid
Jan 28, 2022

It is unknown whether Grove Street Games worked on quality assurance at all or whether the studio actually bothered to patch out some bugs, but that is most certainly not how it seems. All games in the collection have lazily been ported from their mobile counterparts by a company who has seemingly never worked on other platforms before. All games have furthermore been given a remaster treatment so shockingly bad, they have somehow recessed and now look and play worse than any kind of emulated version ever would; and the entire Grand Theft Auto franchise, as masterful and great as it is, will now forever be marred by incompetence — let alone three classics forever disrgraced in such a way. There is no argument that Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition is an abhorrent mess, and an incredibly disappointing one at that.

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Don't Buy
Nov 19, 2021

Bugs may vary in degree across titles in the Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition release, but whether or not they are tolerable, it is puzzling to see how this got past Rockstar, especially with the output that you know they can bring out.

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Caution
Nov 13, 2021

Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas are admittedly masterpieces. Unfortunately, the remasters offered by The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition suffer from too many problems and do not give these diamonds the treatment they deserve.

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No Recommendation / Blank
Nov 30, 2021

The three classic GTAs are still fun, but deserved a better remasterization, with greater care from Rockstar Games and without musical cuts.

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